Charlie champions charter for compost

Gardening celebrity Charlie Dimmock has become the face of a new campaign to promote household composting.

Recycle Now's Compost Bus

Drawn up by Recycle Now and the Know Your Compost campaign, the Compost Charter is encouraging members of the public to sign up and pledge their commitment to either home composting or using peat-free compost.

Those already composting are invited to pledge to keep up the good work.

Harvesting peat for compost is almost always unsustainable and damaging to biodiversity, while effective composting at home can reduce household waste by a third.

The Compost Charter was launched this week at the BBC's Gardener's World Live show at the NEC in Brimingham, with organisers hoping to collect at least 5,000 signatures during the five-day exhibition.

Ms Dimmock planned to make appearances at Recycle Now's eye-catching Compost Bus on both Wednesday and Saturday.

"I'd urge as many people as possible to make a pledge and commit to compost," she said.

"Amazingly around 30 million tonnes of waste comes from our homes each year. With up to 10 million tonnes of that being biodegradable, home composting is a simple and effective way to help protect the environment - yet only a third of us are doing it.

"We also throw away millions of tonnes of garden waste every year. That's waste equivalent to filling the Royal Albert Hall with grass cuttings, prunings and leaves more than 70 times over that is sent to landfill.

"Yet those green materials can be successfully recycled and used to make great quality peat-free and reduced peat composts which do a first class job in the garden."